Statement from Heba Muraisi

Today, I join my comrades and begin my hunger strike. I want to make it abundantly clear that this is not about dying, because unlike the enemy I love life, and my love for life, for people, is the reason why I have been incarcerated for 349 days now.

The horrors and suffering that I have witnessed coming out of Gaza will always be sewed into my memory. And while the world stood by and spoke empty words we’ve collectively condemned our brothers and sisters in Palestine to a life of misery and death. And with the ongoing systematic genocide, the state has been complicit and a participant from the very start. These tyrants now want to sign a 2 billion dollar contract with Elbit, a monstrous establishment who reap the benefits from the blood of our brothers and sisters in Palestine.

Elbit is a terrorist zionist state-made weaponry provider here in the UK, with multiple sites up and down the country. It is right here on our doorstep where these deadly suppliers are manufactured to be tested on the Palestinians and then sold to war pigs globally. The Palestinian suffering is what makes Elbit richer and statistics prove just that.

In a pathetic attempt to wash the blood off his hands, Starmer has now recognised the State of Palestine once Palestine has become unrecognisable. We will never forget and we will never forgive. I knew that in order to win this fight, we had to engage the enemy’s main force, and here in the UK, that would be Elbit. It wasn’t a recruitment, but rather a conscious incorporation from my part: I became Palestine Action.

And now, from behind these steel walls and sensors, I will continue the fight and to resist. This is for the mothers who can’t bury their children, for the fathers who had to bury all of theirs. For the children who have no family left and too young to understand why. And for my family – who I don’t even know if they’ve made it out of Rafah.

I will not compromise until all demands are met. Long live the intifada.